An Englishman of forty years residence in Wales pontificates about politics (slightly off-message), films and trivia. Secretary of Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats. Candidate for Neath in the Westminster elections of 1997 & 2017 and the Welsh general election of 2016.

Friday, 6 December 2013

Madiba

When we see David Cameron pay his tribute - clearly sincere - to Nelson Mandela, we should remember that behind him on the Conservative benches are heirs to these views:

'This hero worship is very much misplaced'- John Carlisle MP, on the BBC screening of the Free Nelson Mandela concert in 1990

'The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation ... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land' - Margaret Thatcher, 1987

'How much longer will the Prime Minister allow herself to be kicked in the face by this black terrorist?' - Terry Dicks MP, mid-1980s

'Nelson Mandela should be shot' - Teddy Taylor MP, mid-1980s

We should also remember that it was the Liberal Party which consistently set its face against discrimination and segregation, even when it was not financially advantageous to do so.

I can add nothing to the many real tributes which have been paid but regret that Mandela's last days were so undignified. Those who have temporary control of his ANC party assiduously cashed in on his barely-living image in photo-ops. As a correspondent in South Africa wrote: "Sad but significant that he had to be twice martyred -- by two very different brutal regimes.".